What does CNN have against atheists?

Check out this clip from yesterday’s CNN.Â Some quick background:Â North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole (R)Â has been making a lot of hay out of the fact that Democratic challenger Kay Hagan attended a fundraiser organized by the Godless Americans PAC.Â Speaking purely politically, Hagan shoulda seen this one coming; still, given that she would take heat for it, her response should have been something along the lines ofÂ “Look, atheists are citizens, too, and while I might not agree with them on religious issues, they have legitimate concerns and I make no apologies for attending their fundraiser.”Â Instead, Hagan issued a response that emphasizes that she’s just as Christian as Mrs. Dole.Â So much for debating their qualifications for office.

Anyway, back to CNN.Â Â Â Not only couldn’t they be bothered to find an atheist pundit to defend the fundraiser [Hey Wolf, shoot me an email, we’ll talk!], they got two pundits whose default positions are that atheists are bad/idiots but that Dole was hitting below the belt nontheless:Â Donna “Don’t Let the White Boys Win” Brazile and Bill “The Gambler” Bennett.Â See for yourself…

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And this isn’t the first time CNN has pulled these kinds of shenanigans.Â After airing this report on Paula Zahn…

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…Ms. ZahnÂ brings in a panel of religious bigots (who stoop to open mockery!) and not a single non-believer:

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So what it is with CNN?Â You’d think with their liberal rep they’d at least give non-believers a seat at the table when it comes to discussions that involve them directly.Â (They did bring Richard Dawkins in a day or two later, but it was too little too late.)